| Method | Etching and aquatint |
| Artist | Thomas Rowlandson and Samuel Alken after George Morland |
| Published | Pub.d as the Act directs, Jan,,y 1.1790 by J.Harris, No.38, Dean Street, Soho & Tho,,s Merle, Leadenhall Street. |
| Dimensions | Images 420 x 555 mm |
| Notes |
A rare set of four shooting prints etched by Thomas Rowlandson, with aquatint by Samuel Alken. First published on 10th February, 1789 by T. Smith of 35, New Bond Street, this set are the 1790 reissue by J. Harris and Thomas Merle. The set was reissued again by Harris and Merle in January, 1791 and January and May, 1792. Thomas Rowlandson (1756 - 1827) was an English watercolourist and caricaturist. Born in London, the son of a weaver, Rowlandson studied at the Soho Academy from 1765. On leaving school in 1772, he became a student at the Royal Academy and made the first of many trips to Paris where he may have studied under Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. In 1775 he exhibited the drawing Dalilah Payeth Sampson a Visit while in Prison at Gaza at the Royal Academy and two years later received a silver medal for a bas-relief figure. As a printmaker Rowlandson was largely employed by the art publisher Rudolph Ackermann, who in 1809, issued in his Poetical Magazine The Schoolmaster's Tour, a series of plates with illustrative verses by Dr. William Combe. Proving popular, the plates were engraved again in 1812 by Rowlandson himself, and issued under the title The Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque. By 1813 the series had attained a fifth edition, and was followed in 1820 by Dr Syntax in Search of Consolation, and in 1821 by the Third Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of a Wife. Rowlandson also illustrated work by Smollett, Goldsmith and Sterne, and for The Spirit of the Public Journals (1825), The English Spy (1825), and The Humorist (1831). Samuel Alken (1756 - 1815) was a British aquatinter, painter, publisher, and head of the Alken dynasty of sporting artists. Whilst based at Dufour Place, Broad Street, Soho in 1780, Alken exhibited a drawing of two female figures, entitled Designs for a Monument, at the Royal Academy. Shortly afterwards, Alken began to specialise in sporting subjects. Many of his prints were published in books such as the Annals of Sporting series and Field Sports, 1822. Frank Siltzer in The Story of British Sporting Prints (first published 1925), argued that although Alken was not the most talented member of the artistic dynasty, his work after Rowlandson, particularly The Opera Boxes and this shooting series, 'attained some pleasing results'. J. Harris was a print publisher active in London between 1787 and 1800. Based in Soho at 37 Dean Street (1787), 38 Dean Street (1788 - 90), and 28 Gerrard Street (1794 - 1800), Harris is best-known for publishing sets of sporting prints including those by Thomas Rowlandson and J. Wright after George Morland. Thomas Merle was a British picture and print-seller, frame maker, and occasional print-publisher active between 1785 and 1826. His premises in Leadenhall Street, were the principal London outlet for the marine painter Thomas Luny, and he was also the early agent for another marine painter, William John Huggins. Gilbey 250, Schwerdt III.112, Siltzer 189, Snelgrove 122 Condition: General discolouration to all four sheets. |
| Framing | framed |
| Price | £4,500.00 |
| Stock ID | 31803 |